[CPEO-MEF] Governing party questions South Korea base cleanup accord

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[Note: The $420 billion estimate in this article is off the scale. It's 
roughly ten times the entire Installation Restoration Program lifetime 
cost for domestic U.S. bases. - Lenny]


Uri Party Moves to Inspect US Base Return Accord

By Jung Sung-ki
Korea Times
July 21, 2006

The governing Uri Party plans to conduct an Assembly investigation into 
negotiations between Seoul and Washington over the sharing of 
environmental cleanup costs for U.S. bases to be returned to South 
Korea, party officials said Friday.

The decision came as South Korea last week accepted 15 U.S. military 
facilities where the U.S. military had pulled out underground fuel 
storage tanks and removed groundwater fuel contamination after 18 months 
of disagreements about the base return process.

Under the land swap pact struck in 2004, the United States Forces Korea 
is required to hand over 59 bases to the South Korean government.

But some lawmakers and civic groups denounced the agreement by which 
South Korea has to cover most of the costs for decontaminating soil 
estimated at $420 billion.

...

For the entire article, see
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200607/kt2006072118191511970.htm

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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